The White, the Red & other stories

For some of you, this post may not be necessary….but for others it may be helpful, as a friend of mine recently asked me if white grapes make white wine and red grapes make red wine. It is almost true, as the color of the wine is provided by the skin. However, you can also make white wine from red grapes.

So…how is this possible? This post explains how the wine-making process affects the color of the wine.

Also, for those of you who want to know more about the color of wine and the wine-making process, you can learn a lot about it from the following extensive vocabulary. Here are some examples:

Grey wine: white wine made of red grapes… a very pale pink wine

Orange wine: white wine made with the red wine technique but using white grapes.

Claret wine: the term comes from “clear,” so originally it was a name for pale wines. Later, the English used the word to refer to very light, french wines. Nowadays, the word is used as a synonym for pale, light wine made in the Bordeaux style, or for a rosé wine made with a mixture of white and red grapes.

Blanc de blancs: literally “white of the whites”. It is a champagne exclusively made of chardonnay

Gris de gris wine: literally “grey of the greys”. It is a grey wine, but made exclusively from grey grapes as Cinsaut gris, Pinot gris, Grenache gris.